Marriage and Motherhood: Why Today’s Young Woman Resists Both

Like Dr. Martin Luther before us, we are called to confess boldly the truth of Christ in the public square. This October, as we celebrate the Reformation, please consider giving to support those who defend the Christian faith and our freedom to proclaim it.

Faith and family have been rising in importance to Gen Z men since the start of this decade. While different studies show different numbers, the general consensus is young men are increasingly subscribing to traditional values. The case is different for Gen Z women. Some studies show that young women are becoming a little more religious, while some show a significant drop. The constant in these studies: Faith is currently more of a priority for young men than it is for young women.

My own Lutheran college group reflects this statistic; the women are often outnumbered by the men, especially at gatherings happening outside of Sunday morning church services. When it comes to having kids, there is a positive correlation between church involvement and wanting to start a family among my female friends. My Christian friends who regularly attend church base their values on God’s Word; my friends on the opposite end of the spectrum base their values on what the world says.

Why? The world considers a woman who renounces having children fashionable and sage. It seems like a requirement of a strong female character in a movie or TV show to declare her lack of interest in having kids. These characters are usually career driven, living in a dystopia or simply too cool and independent. And the steady drumbeat of these ideas—that marriage and motherhood are antiquated and suffocating—are working.

My liberal friends have varying reasons for avoiding motherhood. Some cite the economy as one reason why they are uninterested in having families. Some women I know say they don’t want to be mothers because they don’t want to lose the independent lifestyle of a single woman. Adhering to the traditional idea of a nuclear family is unappealing to them because it means decisions could not be made solely by the woman and the other family members would have to be considered.

Taking it to the darkest extreme, the culture encourages women to believe that they have a right to kill their unborn children, that it’s healthcare or perhaps even self-care. 60 percent of adults in the United States believe abortion should be legal in “all/most cases,” according to Pew Research Center. Consider Olivia Rodrigo, a pop star, who uses concert ticket profits to support Planned Parenthood. She ensures that all of her concert attendees support abortion, at least monetarily.

Young men are returning to the church because it gives them value and purpose. Young women have equal value and purpose, but in different, beautiful ways, and all too often they reject those ways or fail to recognize them. God designed men and women to have different, complementary roles and strengths. Though we have equal value, we are not the same. The culture is hard at work telling young women like me they have to behave like men to be respected and successful. But God designed women to be valuable in their own way. Thanks be to God for a church, pastors, lay people, and especially faithful young women who believe and confess that differences between men and women—chief among those marriage and motherhood—should be celebrated, not resisted.

 

Cameron Countryman is an LCMS college student writing about trends in marriage and life she observes on her college campus while also majoring in journalism.

 

Be Informed
Listen in as Dr. Corey DeAngelis, research fellow for the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, discusses the reality that “school choice” exposes a glaring hypocrisy: political elites exercise educational freedom for their own children while fighting to deny that same freedom to ordinary families. So who controls education and who pays for its politics?

 

Be Equipped
The conversations are everywhere—social media, street corners, staff lounges. People have strong feelings and beliefs on life issues, and as Christians we want to make a winsome witness. But how?

 

Be Encouraged
“Your life is valuable, and your life has purpose. It was not an accident; it was planned from the beginning. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy. You will experience hardship and suffering. As you age, your body will wear out. Your mind will dull. Your abilities will lessen. And yet, it is in your body with all of its brokenness that the Holy Spirit resides. It is this, your body, that God the Father formed by hand, and it is this, your body, that Jesus, God’s Son, redeemed. And your body, a unique and miraculous gift, will be raised from the dead and made new.” –Michelle Bauman

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